As part of its ongoing efforts to bring Bengalis outside of Bengal closer together, Impresario hosted: Prarambh at the India International Centre on Sunday 11th June. “The Father”, an engaging drama with a sombre demeanour that reveals our frail, human nature, is presented by a Bengali theatre group – “Prarambh”.
The play is about a conflict between parents over the future of their kids, which ends with the mother employing crafty manipulation to control and ultimately destroy the father.
The captain – Daniel Maurice D’Costa and his wife, Sylvia, become even more apart as they dispute over the schooling of their daughter in the future. While Sylvia wants their daughter to remain at home and pursue her artistic career, the captain wants her to move outside to pursue higher education. Sylvia attempts to persuade the new doctor in town that the captain is insane while simultaneously sowing doubt in her husband’s mind that her daughter is not, in fact, his daughter. The captain’s aggressive response makes him realise he’s lost control, and his mental state quickly deteriorates as a result. The captain finally concedes to his wife’s authority after being placed in a straitjacket, but not before having a deadly stroke.
Guided by Rabishankar in the lead role as captain we see glimmers of the inner storms that race through the captain’s head as he tries to deal with his circumstance, On the other hand, – Sristi Das in the role of Sylvia (captain’s wife) left the audience to grapple with the dichotomy of love and hate that Captain Daniel evokes.
An excellent performance by the entire Prarambh crew demonstrated that Bengali theatre in Delhi is on par with theatre produced in other languages nationwide.
Musing of a travelling Bong 
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